New $25 million Fund for DREAMers

A new $25 million scholarship fund was created last week to offer scholarships to undocumented college-bound students, also known as ‘DREAMers.’

Created by Donald E. Graham, Henry R. Munoz III, and Carlos Gutierrez, TheDream.US will award full-tuition college scholarships to a thousand students in the next academic year.

Currently, DREAMers are not eligible for any kind of federal financial aid. Some states allow undocumented students to pay in-state tuition, including California. Although some private colleges also offer scholarships to undocumented students, DREAMers can still find themselves limited to reach their educational goals.

The goal of TheDream.US is to enable over 2,000 highly motivated, low-income, DREAMers to graduate with career-ready degrees over the next decade.

Only DREAMers who are first-time college students, have been granted deferred action under President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action policy, and hold a grade point average of 2.5 or higher will be eligible. Scholarships are up to $25,000, which will help cover tuition, fees and books for students working towards an associate’s or bachelor’s degree at the program’s partner colleges, including Long Beach City College and California State University Long Beach (CSULB) in southern California.

For more information and to check out if you or someone you may know qualifies, visit TheDream.US. Deadline to apply is March 31, 2014.